You ought to know by now that it’s the principle you apply, not your personality that will determine how much your business startup will generate.

What does that mean?

The less mistakes you avoid or overcome, the more productive your marketing strategies. And the more productive your marketing strategies, the more money your startup generates.

Simple!

You will be scoring below average should it be said that you deliberately took a decision whose result you are already aware will end in failure. Ultimately, this is not the route top marketing gurus like Neil Patel, Seth Godin and Gary Halbert (when he was alive) followed to get to where they are today.

In my experience working with individuals and organizations who approach me to take their business online or those intending to make money from their blog without necessarily using Google AdSense, one common thing I have come to discover is that most of them are guilty of these marketing mistakes.

Being guilty of these marketing mistakes means that no matter how technically sound the strategies you suggest are, if they don’t deal with these mistakes by way of avoiding or overcoming them, they will still struggle to make jaw-breaking sales.

So to help my clients get their desired and my promised result within the guaranteed limit, I ensure we smash every marketing mistakes capable of stiffening their success. And in exchange among so many other things, they can always access these 2 Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs.

In fulfillment to our obligation on this business blog, I have decided to document the top 3 marketing mistakes most startup entrepreneurs are making and how they can avoid them.

Who knows, these mistakes may have cost you several thousands of dollars in revenue. But you didn’t know.

For every single decision your prospect makes to buy from your competitor, you lose money. And if that continues, your business will pack up.

It’s as serious as that.

May be you will need to read it again, but this time with a loud voice as if you are talking to yourself:

“For every single decision my prospect makes to buy from my competitor, I lose money. And if that continues, my business will pack up.”

Got the nugget?

Let’s dig deep.

Theme that helped me boost my blog traffic

3 Marketing Mistakes Startup Entrepreneurs Make and How to Avoid or Overcome Them

Habits of eventual millionaires

1. Not Knowing Your Audience

The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.
– Peter Drucker

Isn’t it shocking that so many startup entrepreneurs who set out to kick start one business or the other (with the intention to make money) don’t even know who exactly their audience is?

It is, right?

Yes. It’s shocking.

Arguably, most entrepreneurs struggling to convert are guilty of this marketing mistake; they are consistently targeting the wrong audience.

And that’s the truth: no matter how great and valuable your products or services are, if you don’t target the right audience, you won’t make sales.

Don’t create a product or agree to market a product whose audience you have not yet determined. If you do, you will swimming against the tide. No entrepreneur ever succeeded taking that route.

So the question is, How Can Startup Entrepreneurs Know their Audience?

Simple!

Research

You can’t know who your audience is until you conduct a market research to that effect.

It doesn’t need to be a rigorous one.

Check out what pioneers did when they were at your level and what they are doing at the moment by way of interviewing them to know exactly who your audience are.

Sometimes you will need to ask generally to know how many people in your region of influence, offline and online that are already using the product/service you intend marketing.

Build Your Audience

In order blow the trumpet of your marketing campaigns to reach far and near, you will need to build your audience.

As much as you don’t need 10,000 email subscribers or 100,000 members in your Facebook group before you can start making money from your (online) business, you will still need to grow your audience as the day goes.

The bigger your audience, the more money you are likely going to make.

To build your audience, follow this simple step:

° Build your persona and you will attract them naturally.
° Offer them a giveaway in terms of eBook, free articles and consultation, products etc to collect their data (email address, office address or phone numbers) in return.
° Make them to trust you by being consistent in the path you chose to build audience in.
° Be the one that helps people solve their problems.

2. Promising More than You Can Deliver

That you are in desperate need of money should never make you promise more than you can deliver.

If you do, you are gradually digging your business grave without knowing it.

Nothing reduces the integrity of an entrepreneur like having unsatisfied customers as referrals. You need not to be told what picture they will paint about doing business with you.

For your own good, I am here to warn you to fight the temptation of promising more than you can deliver. Doing that does not favour the course you are trying to pursue.

Nothing reduces the integrity of an entrepreneur like having unsatisfied customers as referrals.”
– Emenike Emmanuel –

What to Do When You Discovered You’ve Promised More than You Can Deliver

The truth is, there are cases when startup entrepreneurs can’t fight the temptation of giving promises that are beyond their capacity to deliver, especially when the amount involved is an attractive one.

So what do they do at such time, you may ask?

Do you suggest they call the company CEO and say, “Sir, I’m just a solopreneur, I don’t think I can deliver on this. Forward your company bank account detail let me return your $$$$?”

Or they should go ahead to disappoint their client(s) after all we are all human?

Well, I don’t subscribe to any of these opinions. I think there are better alternatives.

These alternatives are used by economically booming countries, big financial institutions, blue chip companies and all successful individuals around the world. I use them too.

So what are they?

° Form a Team
° Leverage on the Expertise, Experience and Connection of Every Teammates
° Outsource Jobs You Don’t Have the Time, Expertise and Raw Materials to Do.

When you do these things I listed above, you will still make money and at the same time protect your integrity.

However, if you can’t get a team, leverage or outsource, don’t promise more than you can deliver. Shine at your capacity by delivering more than you promised.

3. Setting a Price You Can’t Defend

After starting a business, one of the hardest tasks a startup entrepreneur is faced with is the idea of setting a price for their product or service.

It’s important you know that you can’t compete with top companies with X1000 your budget using pricing as a factor.

Startup entrepreneurs who set a price they can’t defend will always see their customers drifting away. This makes them to keep slashing down and scaling up their price from time to time.

In order to tackle this marketing mistake, I consulted one of Nigeria’s Peak Performance Coaches, author of “How to Sell When No One Wants to Buy,” Iyore Ogbuigwe, and this is what he has to say:

If the value you’re offering is not more than what others in the same market are offering then your price should be within the same range as theirs. [But] if you can clearly articulate added value, there can be added price.”

That was an epic response, right?

Yes. I agree with him.

Coach Deji Sobanjo in one of his videos also agreed that added value, NOT ego is what should determine your pricing.

Related

I am a multiple Award-winning blogger, CEO of Entrepreneur Business Blog, Chief Evangelist of Ebusinessroom Ventures, Lead Coach of The Excellent Entrepreneurs' Network (TEEN) and Convenor of #NaijaSitUp.
My business is to help you start, manage and grow a profitable and sustainable business using digital marketing strategies.
I have been featured and mentioned on platforms like, BloggingTips, StarterStory, StatusBrew, Realty Times, Emerald TV, SmartBCamp, Blogging from Paradise, Write Worldwide, Enterprise Boom, Atang Magazine, etc. In 2019, my blog won the Best Digital Media Award from AB Afrikpreneur.
When you want to hire a professional to handle your online marketing, I'm your go-to-expert you can speak to. In 2019, I won the Blogger of the Year from the Global Excellence in Marketing Awards, USA and my brainchild, EBB won the Best Digital Media Award at the AB Afrikpreneur Awards.
You can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn with this handle, @EmenikeNg

[…] implementing all the 5 simple tips top bloggers do daily to grow their blog and avoiding all the marketing mistakes and blogging pitfalls, most bloggers still fail in their attempt to drive massive traffic to their […]